I hope and pray your New Year is off to a good start. As you look back on 2016, I am sure that you will recognize the many blessings the Lord has given you. I am also sure that you will discover that there were some disappointments and hardships as well. I hope that your blessings far out-weigh your hard times. I count you being a member of <parish name> Parish as a blessing. As your pastor, I am most grateful for your love and generosity.

As we come to the end of the Catholic Stewardship Appeal for 2016, I want to encourage you to review your pledge that you made to CSA to help support the work of our diocese. To those of you who made a pledge and paid it off, I say thank you. I also want to thank those who have been making regular payments towards your pledge.

I want to encourage those who made a pledge and have not made a payment towards that pledge, to do your best over the next two months to pay what you can. Remember that each parish was given a mandatory goal. 80% of the amount raised over that goal would be refunded to the parish while the amount raised under that goal would have to be paid from the weekly Sunday collection. Our parish goal for 2016 was <$00,000.00> and the amount collected as of <December 2016> was $00,000.00. This means that we are< $0,000.00> under our goal which will be taken from the Sunday collection if not collected.

I hope that you find this information helpful as you manage the fulfillment of the pledge that you made. It is important that we do our very best to meet our pledge. The Catholic Stewardship Appeal gives each one of us the opportunity to help the various ministries offered by our diocese – ministries that help us on our own spiritual journey. The CSA also calls to our attention that our parish is just a small part of the entire diocese.